Preparing Customer Service for Black Friday

The week of Thanksgiving is a great time because it means you can take some time to think about what you are grateful for and enjoy some good food. Unless you run a business. While you still might get a little time with your family, that week is going to be the perfect time to monopolize on the Christmas season and crazy shoppers who are trying desperately to get the perfect gift for someone they love. With the crazed number of shoppers you will get a lot of calls, texts, emails, and social media messages to go with it. Is your customer service
ready? Here are five tips for preparing your customer service team.

1. Get text in place

Texting is one of the best ways to communicate with your customers because it is fast and easy, and there’s no chance the wrong information will be conveyed. But one of the best parts is that you can use AI Chatbots to answer repetitive questions and free up your customer service reps for other things. Since it is a busy time of year for customer service agents, they will appreciate any extra time you can give them, and your customers will appreciate the faster response times.

2. Training on specials

Make sure your customers service representatives are fully aware of any specials you may have running for the holiday. One time, I called and waited on hold for a half hour because the person answering my questions didn’t even realize they were running a promotion let alone the rules of it. You will be able to quickly answer customer questions and move on to the next one while sounding intelligent if customer service reps are fully aware of promotions and specials.

3. Inform them on typical allowances

When customers call in upset that they didn’t get what they were expecting, make sure your customer service representatives know what allowances they are able to provide. For example, if you have a restaurant and have customers upset that they got the wrong thing and the food was cold, your staff needs to know whether you would consider giving them the meal for free or just say sorry and offer a free dessert. Of course, the manager should always be involved before automatically offering free product, but it helps a customer service agent to address the situation properly if they know ahead of time the kind of allowances your company has for unsatisfied customers.

4. Assign every customer service agent a responsibility

There is going to be information coming in from a lot of different places, whether that be in person, text, email, on social media, chat etc. Whatever it is, make sure each of your staff knows their responsibility. For a small business, you may have a couple of people in charge of fielding everything. A large business, however, may want to put one or two people in charge of each of those different areas to make sure questions and concerns are addressed as quickly as possible.

5. Keep your staff from feeling stressed

While it is going to be a big week, remember that you are only getting extra phone calls and emails because you are getting extra business. Make sure your customer service agents know they are appreciated by giving them a gift of some sort for working a holiday, even if it is just a piece of chocolate. If they feel as though they are valued instead of being annoyed that they are there on a holiday, they are going to be much more successful.

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Demands for Customer Service are Increasing

Customer service used to be pretty set in stone and easy to manage. A phone call to your company would take care of any issues a customer had. They didn’t care how long they had to wait on hold because they needed to get their issues resolved and there was really no other way to get a hold of you. In this day, however, customers have started expecting much more from businesses. According to Forbes, they are comparing your service to every other business out there instead of just your direct competition. If they just had a great customer service experience with their internet provider, then they expect you to do just as well at your retail store. Here are a few ways in which customers are starting to demand customer service.

Fast response time

Being able to get an answer pretty immediately is becoming an expectation. People don’t want to wait a couple of days for an email response or even fifteen minutes waiting on hold. Since your business should be focused on multiple platforms of service, here are a few ways to address the speed of answering questions or concerns.

Make sure to have the person in charge answer emails and social media messages within a day. Of course, it would be better if it was addressed within a few hours, but that may not always be possible. If wait times are long on a phone call, have a customer leave a callback number so you can call them back when it is their turn in line. Offer two-way texting with AI Chatbots to answer their questions immediately when possible. As long as the customer doesn’t feel like they are wasting their time waiting for you, they will be happy with your business.

Self-service options preferred

More and more customers are leaning towards self-service where they have the ability to get answers to their questions or help with a problem without ever actually having to talk to someone. This is another way in which two-way texting can really benefit your business. While it really isn’t that hard to pick up the phone and make a call, many people find it to be an inconvenience because they have to turn off the TV, get the kids to be quiet, or just find a few minutes in their day to sit down and make the call. If a customer is able to, instead, just send a quick text and continue what they are doing, they are much more likely to do so. This is especially true when they want information quickly such as store hours or daily specials.

Videos

Never underestimate the power videos on your site have for your customers. When done well, you can avoid answering questions on common problems altogether. Customers are very happy to find a video showing them what they need to do differently or how to fix their issue. And it is even more effective than someone trying to talk them through it on the phone. Many companies provide manuals to help their customer with those issues, but people prefer to see a quick video showing them how to fix the issue instead of having to search through their manual and read the instructions while hoping to understand what is being said.

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Source: forbes.com/sites/shephyken/2016/11/12/todays-customers-demand-customer-service-on-their-terms/#4f9ded234ab9